EDINBURG -- A nearly half-ton woman charged with capital murder in the death of her 2-year-old nephew faces additional charges following a grand jury indictment Thursday.

Investigators suspect Mayra Lizbeth Rosales, 27, hit Eliseo Gonzalez Jr. at least two times on March 18, crushing the child's head. The bedridden woman told investigators at the time that she accidentally crushed Eliseo under her own weight while trying to pick him up.

In addition to the capital murder charge - which carries a death sentence upon conviction - she was indicted on one count of first-degree murder, a charge punishable by up to 99 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Rosales also was indicted on one count of injury to a child, a first-degree felony.

Prosecutors said the grand jury handed down the new charges after a full autopsy confirmed investigators' suspicions that the child died because someone struck him.

The formal indictments Thursday, however, revived problematic questions of how authorities will detain and prosecute a woman who is estimated to weigh close to 1,000 pounds and is unable to fit through a door to leave her home. As of Thursday evening, Rosales was not in custody.

Both Hidalgo County District Attorney Rene Guerra and Hidalgo County Sheriff Lupe Treviño promised Thursday that Rosales would somehow face the charges but they remained mute about the details of that process.

Detaining her at the Hidalgo County Jail for her trial would be impossible, Treviño said.

"She would die," he said, because she needs full medical care.

Nevertheless, she will soon face arrest, he said.

Luis Garza, an Hidalgo County justice of the peace, formally charged Rosales with the death as she lay in bed at her La Joya home on March 26. She was immediately released on a personal recognizance bond, meaning she was let go without bail, based on her promise to return to court as required; the privilege is typically bestowed for minor offenses, but in this case was allowed due to her inability to leave home.

On March 18, Eliseo's mother, Jaime Rosales, left the toddler and two of his siblings with her sister. She broke an agreement she had recently signed with Child Protective Services promising not to leave the children in their aunt's care. CPS caseworkers discovered evidence of abuse a month before Eliseo's death.

The state placed Jaime Rosales's other three children - a set of infant twins and a 5-year-old - with a relative after the homicide, a CPS spokesman said at the time.

Jaime Rosales faces a first-degree felony charge of injury to a child for allegedly leaving Eliseo alone with his aunt.

The mother remained free as of Thursday evening. The grand jury recommended her bond be set at $100,000, and that her sister's bond be set at $150,000 cash surety for the woman's two latest charges.

I just heard this on the radio and thought the one half ton must have been a mistake. Good grief, imagine weighing one thousand pounds. There was a similarly huge person here in Houston a few years ago. The front part of the house had to be torn out to get this person out. A box delivery truck had to be called because he/she didn't fit in an ambulance. Who feeds these people?

395 kg overweight? That much fat contains about 2.5 million calories. About as much in 28,000 Honey BBQ chicken wings from KFC. A powerful eatin' woman like her could probably eat that in about 3 years.

the 1000 pounder is the Aunt, not the mom. The kids were taken away from the mom because she had been ordered not to leave them with the Aunt because they already knew she was abusing the kids. Or at least that’s how I read it. But, since they sent the kids to “a relative” and not “with Mrs Rosales’ husband, the father” I will go out on a limb and assume that it’s Miss Rosales, and who knows where or whom the baby daddy (daddies?) is/are/were?

In anycase, why would anyone leave their small children with a bedridden person. If there is an emergency...or heck...if one of the kids needs even needs something...

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